You got a problem?

And listen, we're going to bring a message today that a big part of it is that we're free in America.

And without those who have given the sacrifice, some who gave their whole life, a lot of this we wouldn't be able to say.

So thank you guys for sharing this with us today.

Thank you, Pastor Danny and Pastor Rick, for sharing this platform with me.

And thank you guys.

I'm honored and humbled that you are here today with us.

So, with that being said, guys, I want to talk a little bit about last week.

Pastor Rick mentioned last week harmony and humility that create unity.

And he talked one time about being on a motorcycle and he was holding the motorcycle gas throttle, and he had the problem, and he just needed to let it go.

And sometimes you can let it go.

And then you get to chapter two of Galatians, and there's some times where you just can't let it go.

Now I want to tell you a little bit about chapter 2 of Galatians.

You have to read this in conjunction with Acts chapter 15 to really get a good understanding of it.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

Paul tells us in Galatians chapter 1 that he's been out for three years after his conversion.

Galatians 1 · chapter mention

Then he goes to Jerusalem for 15 days.

That's all it takes for him to about get killed.

And then we pick up in Galatians chapter 2, it's 14 years later, and Paul has confronted a problem.

Galatians 2 · chapter mention

So we're 17 years into Paul's ministry here.

And we pick up with him going to Jerusalem about this problem that he has.

It's called the Jerusalem Council.

And I'm just going to give you a little snippet, and then we're going to read Galatians 2.

But Paul goes to Jerusalem to get a decision from the church there about what to do about the Judaizers who say you have to be circumcised to be saved.

Peter stands up and makes a speech, and he's in favor of no circumcision, right?

And so then Paul leaves and he goes back to Antioch.

Peter goes to Antioch.

There's a convention from Jerusalem that goes to Antioch and they carry a letter to the church at Antioch saying you don't have to be circumcised.

And there was a party.

Right?

I mean, yeah, seriously.

We throw that term around a lot, but there was a party.

So Galatians chapter 2 is Paul telling the churches of Galatia about what happened in Acts chapter 15.

Galatians 2 · chapter mention Acts 15 · chapter mention

With that being said, let's read chapter 2.

We're going to start with 1 through 10, and then we're going to kind of hopefully look at this really in depth today, under the idea that I want to give you you got some kind of problem or something.

That's the title of your series today.

Verse 1.

Then after 14 years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me.

And I went up by revelation and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run or had run in vain.

Yet not even Titus, who was with me being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.

And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in, who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us to bondage, to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.

That is a sentence right there.

Verse 6 But from those who seem to be something, whatever they were, it makes no difference to me.

God shows no personal favoritism to man.

For those who seemed to be something added nothing to me.

But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter, for he who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me towards the Gentiles.

When James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.

They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I was also eager to do.

Let's pray.

Dear Lord, thank you for today.

God, I thank you for the privilege to share your word.

God, I pray that you will hide me and let the people have open minds, clear hearts, so that they can hear your voice.

And God, as I pray always, if there's just one word that you have for us today that's going to impact us at the most critical point of our week, I pray that you be loud and clear and let us not reject that word from you today.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

So, guys, the first thing that I want to mention, if you're filling in your blanks, sometimes you have to fight for freedom.

We're celebrating a holiday today of people who fought for freedom and gave everything they had for freedom.

There's sometimes and some things that you just can't let go.

Paul is faced here with an issue that he has to fight for.

And he goes to Jerusalem, and I want to start in on verse 4 to tell you about this fight that he has for freedom.

Again, this occurred because false teachers secretly came in by stealth to spy out our liberty.

We live here in America, and it's the greatest country in the world.

We're free.

We're not in bondage, we're not enslaved.

And Christians, we're free in Christ.

The Bible tells us what the Son has set free is free indeed.

Galatians chapter 5 is going to tell us that we are called to liberty and freedom.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

We're not called to slavery and bondage.

So in this country that we live in, and being servants of Jesus Christ, we are free.

But Jesus tells us this that the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

But Jesus also says in John 10, 10, I've come that you may have life and have it more abundantly.

The devil cannot take away your freedom.

But what he wants to do is to steal it and try to destroy it by keeping you from embracing the freedom that you have in Christ.

And I'm here today to tell you it's sad for a free man to keep living like a slave.

Are you free?

Here today, CCW.

Not physically, I know that, but are you restrained by other things that you create because you don't embrace your freedom?

I'm going to tell you guys about the Dunavut Valley Trail.

I think we have a picture of this.

I hope we do.

Sometimes it takes the pictures a little while.

I'll start talking.

Oh yeah.

This trail is right beside my house.

There's a gentle stream that rolls beside it.

It's a mile and three-quarters out, and then you turn around and come back.

We take the dog out.

She frolics in the water.

It's shady, and I can go out there and get exercise and not even think about it.

I love to go there.

And for the last few years, in the fall and the winter, I have spent countless days on the Dunimut Valley Trail.

An interesting thing happens to me, though, when it gets to be spring and summertime, I trade in the beauty of this trail for the hot asphalt of my neighborhood.

And it is torture for me to walk around the asphalt in my neighborhood in 80 or 90 degree weather on a summer day.

But I have always sacrificed the freedom of the trail for the asphalt, and there's one reason, and that reason is snakes.

Now, when I tell people about snakes, sometimes I get the feeling that they do not understand.

And one thing that people tell me to show they don't understand about snakes is people will say, Oh, I don't like them either.

Don't get it.

I am deathly afraid of snakes.

Now, there's another thing that sometimes people will say to let me know they're not really in tune with me about the snakes, and that is sometimes people will want to argue the merits of a good snake versus a bad snake.

They don't get it.

See, what you need to know about me is that every snake is a copperback rattle mouth.

And that, in my estimation, is the most serious threat to continued human existence, this copperback rattle mouth.

And I am deathly afraid of snakes.

You see, I grew up kind of a city boy over in an area in Zlee Wylam.

And if you know anything about this area, if there was ever a snake there, it was like really, really lost.

Like it needed to get back home really quick.

We didn't have many snakes.

But I still had this fear of snakes.

I can still remember one time my dad, the first time I remember seeing a snake, we were out at the Warrior River, the best I remember.

I remember an old blue Ford pickup truck, and I was about seven or eight years old.

It took that long to see one, and I was sitting on a rock.

And we may have been fishing, it doesn't really matter.

What matters is my dad looked at me and says, Be careful, there may be a snake under that rock.

And I jumped up and I went to my father and got to safety, and in about two or three minutes, lo and behold, a snake comes out from under the rock.

My father, policeman, grabs his pistol from the ford truck, begins firing at the snake and at the rock.

And now there's a snake under every rock in my mind.

I still remember another time about a snake after I was grown.

Ella was a baby.

Amanda and I were on the porch.

She was holding Ella, and we have a cat.

And you have cats that bring you presents?

This cat brings us a snake.

So the cat comes across the street with a snake, and it's got it in its mouth, and I see Ella and Amanda, and I'm gonna tell you, if Ella wasn't there, this story would not exist because Amanda would have handled the snake for me.

Cat comes across the street with a snake, and I hop up to go and protect my family.

I get a short-handled shovel, the cat drops the snake, I begin to chop the snake, and then I begin to bang on the snake, and then I grind the snake into the driveway.

And then I scoop the snake up with the shovel and I say, Baby, I think I got it.

Snake.

God sent me a practice snake.

Here's what I want you guys to know.

I've probably seen less than 25 snakes out of captivity in my entire life.

But I have heard and believed there to be, if you count the three from yesterday morning on the Dunavut Valley Trail, some 14,768 snakes.

I don't know that for sure.

But anyway, I literally have snakes in my head sometimes, and the fear of snakes keeps me from freedom of my trail.

And I've decided this summer that I am fighting fear.

I'm fighting for my freedom.

So I've been on the trail and I've seen a snake on the trail, and I still went back before it snowed.

Because I'm fighting my fear.

Now, if you go out to the trail, and I hope you do, it's a beautiful place.

I hope you join me there.

If you're there and you don't see me, you might hear something like, ooh.

Or you may hear something like, whoo! And if you hear ooh and woo, you'll know Dave's there fighting for his freedom.

See, those are my sounds of freedom.

I want to tell you guys about a couple of other sounds of freedom that when you hear these sounds, you know there's a fight for freedom going on.

One is you hurt my feelings.

You go and tell somebody they hurt your feelings, that's a freeing sound.

You don't have to keep that in anymore.

You get to start restoring the relationship with them.

That's a sound of freedom.

How about this?

I need help.

Man, I will work myself into the grave and tie myself down and bind myself up and completely exhaust myself to keep from saying, I need help.

Pastor Rick said one last week, he didn't even know it.

I was wrong.

How hard is it to always have to be right?

You don't have to always be right.

You can be wrong, and you can say you were wrong.

And in my experience, if you go around and say you were wrong, people are gonna try to convince you you're right.

They don't want you to be wrong.

How about this?

This goes well with I was wrong.

I'm sorry.

How many places will you not go to keep from saying those seven letters of the English language?

I'm sorry, I was wrong.

Sound of freedom.

Last one, I forgive you.

Go up to somebody and say, You hurt my feelings, and I forgive you.

Don't wait till they ask.

That's not what we're supposed to do.

We're supposed to forgive other people and we pray a prayer that says, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, not so we can forgive those who trespass against us, not forgive us our trespasses, and we will forgive those who trespass against us.

We ask God to forgive us like we forgive others.

And if you our kids were doing a devotion this week, if you don't forgive, you're not on the same page with God.

Sounds of freedom.

So what I have determined is that the biggest threat to my freedom right now, right here in America, is not anything that I can shoot, anything that I can stab, anything that I can kill.

It's fear.

And it sneaks in and it stealthily spies on me and it steals things away from me, and it's the devil.

I'm scared to make some of these sounds of freedom sometimes.

There's places I don't want to go because of my fear.

Now, my fear of snakes is real, but it pales in comparison to the feel of not being approved.

My fear pales in comparison of the fear that I have of being vulnerable or being embarrassed or getting rejected.

Do you have those fears?

The Bible tells us God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind.

But we sure do play with our fear like it's a gift from God, don't we?

We give it a ton of attention.

If you want to fight freedom, if you want to live this abundant life that God has given us, we've got to fight fear.

Don't let the devil sneak in stealthily and steal that liberty from you by being scared of things that may happen.

Here's the thing you got to know: we're victorious already.

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 15.57.

Thanks be to God who leads us in triumph in Christ, 2 Corinthians 2.14.

We're the champions, so why are we so scared all the time?

What are we running from?

What are we trying to win?

What are we trying to prove?

Who are we trying to impress?

I gotta tell you what I just believe.

We're measuring ourselves by an earthly standard.

We're looking for justice, we're looking for safety, we're looking for prosperity and fairness.

Jesus didn't get any of that.

He didn't get any justice for himself.

They didn't treat him fair.

He wasn't prosperous, not here on earth, money-wise.

He got kicked out of church and almost thrown off a mountain, like right out of the gate.

And it ended with him dying.

We say he's the stone that the builders rejected, and he promised us we're gonna have trouble in the world and that we're gonna be persecuted just like he was.

We serve a rejected Savior.

And we fight so hard trying to get approval and acceptance and not being embarrassed.

And this fear, the devil takes away our abundant life.

Don't let the devil take away your freedom because I'm here to tell you this.

We also serve the creator of the universe, a good and perfect God who loves his people.

We serve a God who gives good gifts to his people, a God who loved us so much that while we were still sinners, he sent Christ to die for us.

He has the hair of our head number.

He knew us in the womb.

Jesus loves you and you are accepted in Christ.

You don't have to be scared.

That's point one.

Bear with me.

Point two.

What we see Paul doing here, and we're kind of going in reverse, verse five, Paul says that he had to defend the doctrine.

These false teachers came in and he didn't yield submission even for one hour that the truth of the gospel may continue.

Point two, you've got to defend the doctrine.

As a Christian, there's going to be times you're called on in your life to defend the doctrine.

If you don't defend the doctrine, then the doctrine becomes untrue.

There are false teachers all over.

And we teach the Iwana kids that they are to study to show themselves approved unto God, rightly dividing the scripture is what you're supposed to do, not being ashamed.

It's not just for the kids.

You gotta be a defender of the doctrine.

I love to cut up and have fun, but if a doctrinal issue comes up, I will drop everything and dig in as long as it takes until I get clear what God wants me to know about this.

I will fight for the doctrine.

Will you, if you hear something that's just not exactly right, you're free to embrace that freedom.

Here's what I want you to know.

We talk some about false doctrines, a big one that I see invading the church today.

We accept people as they are in love.

But what the world wants us to do is approve of them.

And I see a lot of churches in the name of acceptance that are going to approval.

Acceptance means tolerance, approval means saying it's okay.

We better be really careful.

We better defend this doctrine.

Number three, confront the problem.

Let the ex-lawyer or still lawyer come to tell you about confronting problems.

So, Paul tells us this.

We're gonna go up to verse two and tell you about what he did.

He's told us why he did it, now what he does.

I went by revelation and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run, I had run in vain.

The first thing Paul does to confront the problem, if you see that word revelation, that means he prayed and God told him what to do about the problem.

Have you prayed for your problems?

Do you pray about your problems or do you pray after you go and work them out and then get in a mess?

He prays about his problems and then he obeys what God tells him to do.

If we can pray and obey, we're gonna be doing really good.

And then Paul goes to seek wise counsel from those who are of reputation.

I'm gonna give these people names.

We got Peter, James, and John.

He goes to seek their guidance about what to do about his problem.

Let me tell you guys another sound of freedom.

I have a problem.

How freeing it is to say that you have a problem.

Let me tell you one thing that you need to know.

In this world, you will have problems.

And that's okay.

See, we it problems, it's like they're bad and we don't even want to admit it.

It carries this negative connotation.

If someone comes up to you and says, hey, you got some kind of problem or something, I mean, that's just about fighting words.

It's not good to say you have a problem.

I think we need to reshape the conversation and we need to get our kids to maybe quit lying.

Bear with me here.

There's an old song I learned when I was a kid.

If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.

You ever sang that when you weren't happy?

You clap your hands?

How about if we change it to say, if you've got problems and you know it?

Clap your hands.

Nobody would be clapping though, would they?

I don't know.

Number one, you're gonna have problems.

Number two, you can't solve all your problems on your own.

Lord knows I've tried it.

I will go to great extents to try to keep from even admitting I have a problem, and then to try to keep from having help any help from solving it.

So, here's the thing that I do, and I think maybe you might do this.

The first thing I see when you have a problem, you act like you don't have a problem.

And then, if you cannot say you don't have a problem anymore, you'll start pretending that your problem is normal.

So we act like we don't have one, we pretend it's normal.

Then you may try to run away from your problem.

Well, my problem's over there, but I'm gonna run over here, and I'm gonna act like that's not over there.

It's not normal.

I get it, I know it's real, but I'm gonna be over here.

And then, if you just realize you're gonna have to either confront this problem or exist with it, you make adjustments to deal with your problem.

How many adjustments can you make to deal with the problem?

I'm gonna tell you a little story.

I had a problem once.

About 10 years ago is the one I want to talk about.

It was in the fall of 2011, and I remember it well.

It was just a little bitty problem, just a little bit of pain.

And I acted like it wasn't a problem.

Days went on, weeks went on, months went on.

On, and it got to the point that I could no longer pretend I didn't have a problem.

But I was 33, and I said, Well, this must be what it's like to get older.

33.

You have a little pain.

So this pain kept going and going.

I couldn't really run from it because it was in my body, this pain, but I suppressed it, I pushed it away as much as I could.

I acted like it didn't exist, and I tried to live as normal as I could with my problem.

And I made adjustments because of my problem.

According to this pattern that I've told you, I adjusted my eating pattern, I adjusted my sleeping pattern, I adjusted a lot of things.

And when Amanda took me and the one and three-year-old to the store, uh, it was like she had three kids.

We all had to go try out the bathroom, every store we went to.

All the way till February 28th of 2012, from the fall of 2011, some five or six months, had this problem and I didn't want it to interrupt my life.

And then on February 28th, 2012, the pain became so great that I no longer could make any adjustment to keep it at bay.

And so I sought help.

I told Amanda I gotta go to the emergency room.

And I didn't believe they were gonna let me in the emergency room because I was so convinced I didn't even have a real problem.

They admitted me into the hospital, and three days later the test showed I had a fist-sized tumor in my stomach, and I had surgery and I had chemo all summer, and in August I was cleared, and the cancer was gone, and it has been for 10 years, praise the Lord.

But here's what I want to ask you guys: how much pain will you endure to keep from admitting you have a problem?

How many adjustments are you willing to make to the life that God wants you to live abundantly to keep from admitting that you have a problem?

See, because when you go and admit that you have a problem, sometimes it interrupts your life.

And sometimes it's inconvenient.

We see that here with Paul.

He had to leave the mission field 17 years to go to Jerusalem or he about got killed to deal with a problem.

Sometimes when you have a problem, the medicine you have to take is a little hard to swallow.

And sometimes the solution to your problem may not taste good.

And sometimes you just don't want to get help.

Will you let your problem kill you?

You don't have to let your problem kill you.

It doesn't have to define you.

Paul goes to people who are of reputation after he prays and gets his revelation.

And I want you guys to hear about a guy who I know who had reputation.

His name is Bob.

And he had a reputation of being a builder.

Bob the builder.

Here's Bob.

He's on the Dunavut Valley Trail.

Notice how he's dressed.

This is the way we used to roll out there because this is when it was cold and safe.

Not anymore.

So Bob was one of the founding members of our church, and he took care of his wife, Miss Jewel, for years.

She had dementia.

Bob moved away to Oregon a couple of years ago.

I still miss him.

But I'm going to tell you a little bit about one experience I had with Bob.

When my wife and I moved here with our children, we moved from our house that had two and a half bathrooms to King's Home.

And in King's Home, we had an apartment, and in that apartment there was Uno bathroom.

And let me tell you how this thing was laid out.

There was a double sink and then a stand-up shower.

Across from that was a tub shower combo, and right beside that was a toilet.

So we put up a shower curtain on the shower, a shower curtain on the tub, a shower curtain on the toilet, and there were days when there were three or four people in there with very different interest about what was going on.

And I lived like that for three years.

And one day I just saw Bob and I said, Bob, what are you up to?

Because I knew he was a builder.

And Bob said, I'm looking for something to do.

It's amazing how if you will say you have a problem and go seek out someone who could help you, God just might have them ready right then.

So Bob told me he was looking for something to do, and I told him about my problem, and he said, Hey, uh, when you want to get together.

And I said, Well, what about nine in the morning?

And Bob didn't ever say too much if he didn't really like what you were saying, but he just looked at me funny.

And I said, How about seven in the morning?

He said, That'll work.

So seven the next morning, Bob comes over to our house and he's got his measuring tape and he measures it out.

15 minutes.

He goes home.

He says, I'll see you at 7.30 the next day.

On Tuesday morning, we get together at 7.30.

We go to the hardware store.

It's not like any hardware store that I've ever been to before with Bob.

He knows exactly where he's going.

He doesn't have to look.

He knows exactly where it is.

He picks it up.

We go back.

And by 11:30, can I just tell you that I had a door to that toilet?

And I had a three-year problem that got fixed in 48 hours when I admitted I had a problem, and when I asked for help from somebody who could help me, is there anybody here today who's got a problem that's just lingering with you?

And you just need to get around the right people.

And you just need to ask for help from the right people, people of reputation who can help you.

If there is, there's all kinds of people in this church who would love to help you with your problem.

If you can't think of any pervasive problem right now that you have, maybe this might be your season to be right people for somebody.

God has equipped us in this body to do everything that we need to do.

But you need to confront your problem.

Be right people and let God work through you.

Next, number four.

This verse really gets me, verse six.

Let me just read this.

From those who seem to be something, whatever they were, it makes no difference to me.

God shows no personal favoritism to man.

For those who seem to be something added nothing to me.

You're talking about Peter and John who saw the empty tomb, and James, the half-brother of Jesus.

And this is how we're describing these people who we're saying are of reputation.

Paul goes on, you need to fight favoritism or forsake favoritism.

Number four.

Doesn't matter who it is.

Everyone of flesh can fall.

So Paul goes to these people, but he's saying, it didn't really have nothing to me.

I mean, that's the way I see it.

I don't know.

Maybe wrong.

Listen though.

Peter had said it himself in Acts chapter 10.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

God is no respecter of persons.

We're gonna see in Romans there's no partiality with God.

James said it, don't hold the faith of Christ with partiality.

But you know what?

It's so hard not to have favorites because we're taught from the time we're kids to have favorites.

What's your favorite toy?

What's your favorite food?

What's your favorite drink?

What's your favorite movie?

What's your favorite color?

What's your favorite this?

What's your favorite that?

And we when we apply that to people, when you have a favorite thing, you're saying one thing is more valuable to me than another.

And God don't see us like that.

It's really hard.

But if you're gonna fight for freedom, you gotta forsake favoritism.

Number five.

Radiate grace.

Let's look at verse 9 real quickly right here.

When James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship.

My question for you today is if you're saved, then you are saved by grace and not by works, that no man should boast.

Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, and we're saved for works.

Pastor Danny's here.

He wants me to put verse 10 in there.

So, if you're saved and you're saved by grace, can anyone perceive the grace that you've been given?

Do you speak different, think different, act differently, respond differently, have a different attitude, different activities?

Can people look at you and say, wow, look at the grace?

Pastor Rick said something last week along the same lines.

He wants people to see Jesus through him.

Can people see the grace that you've been given through you?

When Peter and John in Acts chapter 4 went into the Sanhedrin, the Bible tells us that the people noticed that they were untrained, uneducated men and their boldness and courage, they could tell they had been with Jesus.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

Can anybody tell that you've been with Jesus, that you've seen this week?

Now let me tell you this: if you are here today and not saved, there's a gift that's available.

Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins.

He, all of our sins, he rose again, and all you have to do is accept that grace.

And we'll have a chance to do that before we close today.

You can be saved.

You can be free.

And I'm gonna be real honest: if you're not saved, you've got a problem.

And it's one you can't fix yourself.

Radiate grace.

Let it be perceived.

Go out and show it.

And what we see with Paul and Barnabas here is that they found fellowship through their grace.

There's a ton of fellowship among people who perceive grace in one another.

It's just the kind of guy you want to be around, and Lord knows I'm not always that guy.

Like maybe a couple, three days a week, I'm working on it.

Just being honest.

Radiate grace.

Verse 10 is simple.

It says that everyone agreed they should take care of the poor.

If you want to find unity, find unity with other people going to take care of the poor.

That's a hard one to argue about.

You're going to be unified in taking care of the poor.

I want to skip back, though, and I want you guys to hear something that you may have missed.

Alright, we've got Barnabas, Paul, and Titus that go to Jerusalem, and in verse 9, Barnabas and Paul get the right hand of fellowship.

Am I to believe that Paul omitted Titus?

Because Titus was uncircumcised, still a Greek, and the Jewish church has given the right hand of fellowship to the two guys who were the Jews.

What about Titus?

Where does he fit into this?

Did this really resolve the problem, or was there some kind of fake peace?

Don't settle for fake peace.

I don't know if the problem was resolved or not.

I just know Paul didn't mention that Titus got the hand of fellowship and he went there with it.

They didn't make him get circumcised, but they his name's not there.

You ever uh let's let's see what happens with the rest of the story.

Verse 11.

Careful with this.

We need to do this in love.

Now, when Peter came down to Antioch from Jerusalem, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed.

For before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles.

But when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing, fearing those who were of the circumcision.

And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, that even Barnabas, who's identified in the Bible as an encourager, who's one of the first people to stand up with Paul, who's been with him for 17 years, Barnabas got swept away by the hypocrisy.

Paul got in his face.

Point six, you gotta handle hypocrisy.

Matthew 18, 15 gives us a way to do it.

You go to your brother, you and him, that you may win your brother.

You need to go in love.

And we've got Paul in Peter's face here.

And let me tell you that at the end of more further in the book, 2 Peter chapter 3, Peter identifies Paul as a beloved brother who is wise, who had gotten in his face.

2 Peter 3 · chapter mention

So we need to make sure we try to win the person and not to fight when we're handling hypocrisy.

But we need to handle hypocrisy.

Don't let it grow.

Don't let it fester.

It's there and it's gonna come out.

How do you do?

Do you act like it's not there?

Do you pretend it's normal?

Do you run away to another church family?

Gonna be there too.

Or do you in love go and confront the hypocrisy and handle it?

Handle it.

So, verse 13 and 14.

Well, verse 14.

One interaction here, Paul and Peter's face, and then I think we have another interaction.

When I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, Paul is saying that Peter, the rock the church was built on, had a problem, and he wasn't straightforward with the truth of the gospel.

This was an event that could have completely destroyed Christianity.

He wasn't straightforward with the truth of the gospel.

He came to him and says, If you're being a Jew, live like Gentiles, why do you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?

What you're saying and what you're doing doesn't add up, Peter.

And he says this in front of a big group of people.

And I picture, we've got two of the most important characters of the Bible here face to face, and I hear ding ding ding.

The bell's about to ring for the boxing match of the heavyweight.

And Paul says, Peter, there's gonna be two hits.

I'm gonna hit you, you're gonna hit the floor.

Because in verse 15 and on through the end of the chapter, Paul is going to outline one of the greatest and most fundamental tenets of our faith that Pastor Rick is going to bring a message on next week.